MUMBAI: When it comes to adoption of mobile banking, India ranks number four worldwide, ahead of all the G7 countries but behind China, South Africa, South Korea and Singapore. The usage of mobile for banking is driven entirely by the youth with the average age of India’s mobile banking customer being 30 — the lowest among banking customers worldwide.

The high rate of adoption of mobile banking is good news for banks as well as the economy. According to a KPMG report on Mobile Banking 2015, the shift to the low-cost mobile banking channel will lead to huge cost savings for the bank. Compared to mobile banking, the transaction cost of branch banking is 43 times higher, while using a call centre or ATM is 13 times more expensive. Even in internet banking — hitherto the cheapest form of banking — the transaction cost is twice as much as in mobile banking. The report finds that while the mobile is already the largest banking channel by volume of transactions, its adoption by new customers is now entering an exceptionally rapid phase.